


Rebellion Strikes Back

by Wasfiyah



Category: Star Wars Episode V: Empire Strikes Back
Genre: Alternate Universe
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-08-13
Updated: 2016-01-06
Packaged: 2018-04-14 12:39:30
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 6,325
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4565001
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wasfiyah/pseuds/Wasfiyah
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Alternate universe where Han doesn't know that Luke has gone missing and leaves Hoth.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Damned Statistics

**Author's Note:**

> Hey, thanks for reading. I've decided to copy the beginning of Empire pretty closely so I can wildly veer off. I hope you like it.

“Solo?” General Rieekan asked, noticing his arrival and straightened up from his console.

Han lifted his head up, “No sign of life out there General. The sensors are in place. You’ll know if anything comes around.”

General Rieekan tilted his head slightly, “Commander Skywalker reported in yet?”

Han shook his head, “No. He’s checking out a meteorite that hit near him.”

General Rieekan points at his radar screen, “With all the meteor activity in this system, it’s going to be difficult to approach ships.

Han took a deep breath, and finally blurted out what was on his mind, “General, I’ve got to leave. I can’t stay anymore.”

The General frowned, “I’m sorry to hear that.”

Han shot the General a half marked grin, “Well, there’s a price on my head. If I don’t pay that off Jabba the Hut, I’m a dead man.”

The General nodded understandingly, “A death mark’s not an easy thing to live with. You’re a good fighter, Solo. I hate to lose you.”

“Thank you Sir.”

 

Han stops in the corridor and turns to face Leia, and looks a little concerned, it was one discussion he was hoping he didn’t have to have. “Yes...your highness?”

“I thought you had decided to stay?”

Han couldn’t tell what emotion she was feeling, she hid them so well, “Well the bounty hunter we ran into on Ord Mantell changed my mind.”

“Han we need you!”

Han drew back slightly, “We?”

“Yes.”

Han knew it was cocky, but he took a chance. “Oh, what about what you need?”

Leia shot Han a mystified glance, “I need? I don’t know what you’re talking about?

Han shook his head, annoyed, “You probably don’t.”

“And what precisely am I supposed to know?”

Han made a large gesture with his arms, “Come on! You want me to stay because of the way you feel about me.”

“Yes. You’re a great help to us, you’re a natural leader.”

Now Han was flustered, “No! That’s not it. Come on.” He made several noises of annoyed disgust He smiled to himself, then laughed, knowing it would annoy her further. Leia stares at him, then it clicked in her mind, Han can see it.

“You’re imagining it.”

“Am I? Then why are you following me? Afraid I was going to leave without a goodbye kiss?”

Leia scoffed, “I’d just as soon kiss a Wookie.”

Rebuffed, Han turned to leave and stride down the corridor shouting, “I can arrange that! You could use a good kiss!”

 

Chewie was still struggling to fix the central lifter, Han noticed he had taken it apart again. “Again, why do you take this apart now? I’m trying to get us out of here and you pull both of these!” Chewie set off a series of irritated growls, added even a few words Han couldn’t distinguish. He saw Threepio walking across the hangar, his arms flailing heading towards one of the rebel pilots. He sighed and rolled his eyes, “Protocol droids...” He turned back to Chewie, “Put them back together now.” Chewie mumbled back, but he started to put the lifter back. Han was antsy to get back and pay off Jabba. He prefered his legs unbroken or dismembered. Han couldn’t shake off a terrible uneasy feeling, but he chocked it up to the argument he had with Leia and his debt with Jabba. He got into the Falcon and ran his hands through his hair, sighing audibly, “I hope I’m doing the right thing.” He could hear Chewie growling in response, he responded back and pounded the roof, “It’s not like we’re not coming back!”. Chewie wasn’t happy with that response, “Luke won’t mind okay?” Han noticed a pilot getting on a tauntaun outside the blast doors, he thought it curious but was more interested in getting out of here.

 

Chewie had finally finished putting everything back, and the ship was ready to leave. He thought against saying bye to anyone, just in case. “Let’s get the hell off this barren wasteland.”

 

Leia stood there, as she saw the Millennium Falcon leave the hangar, her vision cloudy with the few tears she allowed herself. No one knew where Luke was, and on Hoth that was a death sentence. She could curse him for not coming back with Han, she thought of radioing Han to go out and look for him, but he was as good as gone. He made himself clear, he was in it for the money and now he had it. Leia didn’t want to feel any attachment to him, but she found herself in that situation anyway. Sila Kott went out on a tauntaun because the speeders weren’t ready yet. She insisted, “He’d do the same for us Ma’am.” Leia knew she was right, Luke was becoming quite the poster boy for recruiting, farm boy from Tatooine who took down the death star, she feared without him there would be no more Rebellion. Leia sighed, she felt so useless.

 

She returned to the console and the radar screen, hoping to spot trouble before it found them. She couldn’t shake an odd feeling reaching out to her, that Luke was in trouble right at this very moment. It felt like shapes just under a silken sheet, she stopped what she was doing and trying to focus on the feeling. She felt...upside down, could hear moaning, and fear, there was fear. She opened her eyes, “What in the?” “What is it Leia?” asked General Rieekan

She swallowed and shook her head, “I don’t know, I just feel...like Luke is in trouble right now.”

“Out on Hoth, we’re all in trouble right now.”

That didn’t make her feel any better, and neither could she focus on her console.

 

The storm was getting worse, the wind gusting worse than anyone in the base had experienced so far, and the sun was setting. Hope was lost for Leia, she stood inside the entrance to the Rebel base, waiting for any sign at all, with Major Derlin. “Sir, all the patrols are in. There’s still no contact from Skywalker or Kott.” A Rebel Lieutenant reports to Derlin. Leia averted her gaze to the floor, she didn’t want to believe there was no hope. Threepio bent slightly to look at her, “Mistress Leia, Artoo says he's been quite unable to pick up any signals, although he does admit that his own range is far too weak to abandon all hope.” Lost in thought Leia just nods in acknowledgement. “Your Highness, there’s nothing more we can do tonight. The shield doors must be closed.” Major Derlin repeats, he then turns to the Rebel Lieutenant, “Close the doors.”

“Yes Sir.” Artoo then began to set off a series of what sounded like complex and mournful beeps. Threepio began with his very non useful statistics. “ Artoo says the chances of survival are seven hundred seventy-five...to one.” The door slammed, causing a large echo. Leia just stared at the door not really knowing what to do, leaving two of her own men out there. “Actually, Artoo has been known to make mistakes... from time to time. Oh, dear, oh, dear.  Don't worry about Master Luke.  I'm sure he'll be all right.  He's quite clever, you know... for a human being.” Leia silently turned around and walked back to her console. Her feelings about Luke’s well being were only getting worse.

 

 


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Leia's reels from the morning's report outside the Rebel base. Meanwhile a strange voice leads her elsewhere.

The wind hadn’t subsided much from the night before, Leia sent out a few men out on armoured snowspeeders trying to track Luke or Sila. She didn’t have much hope, not with the storm but she had to stay positive. “Echo Base...I’ve found something. It’s not much. I’m not getting any life signs, but it looks like...”

Leia heard the radio, “No...” Leia seemed to have melted, and she fell to the floor. She had been hoping, praying that Luke would make it. He was so clever, and so brave, but it was Hoth that took him. “Echo Base, affirmative. It’s Commander Skywalker and Sila Kott . They’re dead, should we return them to base?”

Major Derlin looked at Leia, “Affirmative, return with Skywalker and Kott.”

“Acknowledged.”

 

Leia looked at the two bodies of Luke and Sila, in the medical center. There was no where else to put them, she half expected Luke to sit up and grin saying he couldn’t be killed so easily. She put her hand over her mouth to muffle the sounds of grief that came out. She took several short breaths trying to center herself. She thought she heard a voice call out her name. Leia...She turned around but there was no one there. Feeling a series of chills that weren’t coming from the cold she zipped up her jacket and left, not wishing to look at Luke anymore. Just in time to save her from her own thoughts an alarm blared overhead, “HEADQUARTERS PERSONNEL, REPORT TO COMMAND CENTER” She jogged to the command center, and General Rieekan’s head looks up from his console screen, gesturing her over, “Princess, we have a visitor.” A crowd gathers around her, “We’ve picked up something outside the base in zone twelve, moving east.”

A senior controller speaks up, “It’s metal”

She furled her brow, “so it’s not native.”

“Could it be one our own?” the senior controller responded, he stopped himself mid thought, then looked back at Leia in horror, “No, wait - there’s something very weak coming through. I think it’s Imperial.”

Threepio walks towards the control panel from behind Leia, “ Sir I am fluent in six million forms of communication. This signal is not used by the Alliance. It is an Imperial code.”

Rieekan wastes no time, “Send Rogues 10 and 11 to station 3-8.”

Leia shot back, “We’re short two pilots!”

Rieekan shrugs, “We’re always short something. Pilots, credits, sense.”

 

A Rebel Lieutenant calls in over a comlink, “Afraid there isn’t much left.”

“What was it?”

There’s a small pause, “Droid of some sort Ma’am, Imperial I think. It self destructed.”

“Yeah sounds like an Imperial probe droid alright. Looks like the Empire knows where we are now.”

Rieekan nods, “We’d better start the evacuation now.”

 

Alarms rang out throughout the hangar, ground crews and troops running carrying everything they can carry. Armored snowspeeders are lined up in attack formation near the main entrance, to give everyone the time they need to evacuate. Somehow Leia is almost deaf to it all, focusing on giving and receiving orders staring at her console. Threepio comes up behind her, “Mistress, I think it best if we leave this hangar. Imperial troops are landing and will be here in less than 120 minutes.”

Leia waved the droid away, focusing instead on the little blinking lights on her screen. Rieekan took Leia’s shoulder and turned her around, “When I said evacuation, I meant everyone.”

She sighed, “I can’t leave everyone, There’s so much I can do.” Rieekan nodded, “I know, but we need you, the Rebellion needs you to survive. You have to go.” A shell went off above, shaking the roof and sending dust everywhere. “General, there’s a fleet of Star Destroyers coming out of hyperspace in sector four.”

“Reroute all power to the energy shield. We’ve got to hold them until all transports are away. Prepare for ground assault.” Rieekan took off towards the exit.

 

She gathered a small group of pilots, she didn’t recognize them all but then again she didn’t have to. “All troop carriers will assemble at the north entrance. The heavy transport ships will leave as soon as they're loaded.  Only two fighter escorts per ship.  The energy shield can only be opened for a short time, so you'll have to stay very close to your transports.” Pilot Hobbie looked on incredulously “Two fighters against a Star Destroyer?”

“ The ion cannon will fire several shots to make sure that any enemy ships will be out of your flight path.  When you've gotten past the energy shield, proceed directly to the rendezvous point.  Understood?”

The pilots all nodded, and in union replied, “Right, Okay.”

As they ran towards their ships she said aloud, “Good luck.”

 

It was intense inside the command center, but no one wanted to show any fear, lest if one of them broke down they all would. It wasn’t looking very good, the Rebels were down men, and the Empire had the might. “ Their primary target will be the power generators.  Prepare to open the shield.” Rieekan ordered over the comm. She kept her eyes on the screen looking at the pilots, waiting for further bad news. Leia... Again the voice came, Leia turned around quickly to see what or who was calling her name, and again it was nothing. “Are you alright Leia?” Asked a female contoller. “Yes, yes I’m fine.” Leia nodded as if to reassure herself.

 

“Stand by, ion control...fire!” Everyone’s eyes glued to the screen looking to see if the Rebel transport would make it away from the planet. The ion blast hits the Imperial Star Destroyers causing it to spin wildly out of control, allowing the transport to race to safety. Leia wears a large grin and everyone inside the command center shares a short cheer. “First transport is away” rings out over the loudspeaker. The cheer is short lived as more news reaches the comlink, “We have spotted Imperial walkers.” Leia suddenly felt even worse about their chances.

 

On the screen is just a mess of enemy and friendly lights, she can hardly make sense of it anymore. She keeps thinking of Luke, “Luke would know what to do out there.” She thinks to herself outloud. As she says it outloud she sees two of her own snuffed out on the screen, she closes her eyes, exhaling strongly. “Just have to make it long enough to finish the evacuation.”

“Armor’s too strong for blasters, We’re not getting through” comes a message over the intercom. “Any suggestions?” Leia answered back.

“Uhh...”

Leia rolled her eyes, “There’s gotta be something. Think.”

Again a voice came like it was whispering into her ear, Leia... She decided not to search for the sound but let it come to her, bigger they are, the harder they fall.

Her eyes widened, and she grabbed the intercom. “Use your cables, go for the legs.”

“Stand by”

 

“How did you know to use that tactic?” Asked a senior controller

“A hunch.”

It seemed to be working, the pilots took down a walker, at the cost of one pilot. There was only a few transports left to go. Leia smiled to herself, “We’re going to make it.” She whispered to herself. Another giant explosion above shakes ice into the command center, “I don’t think we can transport two transports at a time.”

“I know Rieekan, it’s risky, but we can’t hold out much longer. We have no choice.”

“Launch patrols.”

Leia turned to her aid, “Tell everyone, we’re evacuating ground staff. Go, GO!”

 

She eyed some of the cracks in the roof, it wouldn’t be much longer until the thing gave way. “Mistress Leia, mistress! Please we must go now, this base simply isn’t going to last much longer.” Leia waved Threepio away, Artoo banged into her legg setting off a series of annoyed chirps. “I think that means it’s time to go already.” Rieekan looked up, “It’s the last transport Leia, it’s our last chance. Come on.” Another blast rocked the command center, knocking Leia over. “Imperial troops have entered the base.” Leia got up on her knees and crawled to the intercom, “Give the evacuation signal and get to your transports!” Rieekan grabbed Leia’s hand, and ran towards the hanger. “Oh! Wait for me Mistress!” chimed in Threepio.

 

The transport ship was primed for departure, a senior officer gestured them on, “Hurry, hurry, Imperials are right behind you.” As if on cue several troopers fired on the transport. “Well, let’s not all sit around” Barked Leia.

 

Leia sat silently with Artoo, staring off, looking at the black capsule that contained the bodies of Luke and Silo. She closed her eyes again, feeling exhausted, again a voice called out to her. This time stronger. Leia...Leia, come to the Dagobah system. Leia fell into a deep slumber.

 

 


	3. Chapter 3

Leia’s eyes fluttered open, she waved her arms around trying to get her bearings. She quickly noticed she was no longer on the transport. An aqualish woman poked her head into the doorway, “Princess, you’re awake. You were so exhausted we were wondering when you would wake up again.”  
Leia sat up, “How long have I been asleep?” She groggily rubbed her eyes, and noticed her legs felt like a deceased bantha corpse. “Three days mistress.” Leia’s eyes shot wide, “THREE DAYS!”  
“THREE DAYS! AND NO ONE THOUGHT TO WAKE ME?!?”  
The aqualish woman was obviously taken aback by Leia’s attitude, which caused Leia to soften her voice, “I’m sorry, I should have shouted. It’s just...just.” Leia took in a deep breath, slowly the events of the past months had taken their toll. “I’m sorry, it’s just we all know what you’ve been going through. It’s been hard on all of us, but.” The aqualish woman stroked her tusk, “We, I thought that perhaps you could use some time.”  
Leia flopped back on the bed and sighed out loud. “I suppose. I just can’t help but feel like I need to get back to the action.” The aqualish woman made an odd humming noise, and nodded, “I’ll see you later mistress.”

Leia was alone again, alone with her thoughts. What was in the Dagobah system? And what was that voice? Leia thought back to what Luke had said when he shot down the Death Star, “It was like Ben was speaking into my ear what to do. I just knew I had to trust him. I knew.” Leia shook her head, it was impossible that Ben was talking to her, she wasn’t a Jedi. Leia frowned, “I miss you Luke. You big ol’ stupid moppy head.” she whispered aloud. She turned herself to get off the cot she was on, and headed towards the command center of wherever she was. 

She quickly recognized that she was on Admiral Ackbar's flagship, the Home One. Finding a console she quickly asked the computer to find the Dagobah System. “Dagobah? What are you looking up Dagobah for?” A male Mon Calamari who was looking over Leia’s shoulder asked.   
“Oh, I don’t know. I just...wanted to know.”  
“What’s out there any way?”  
Leia shrugged, “Not a clue, but look it seems deserted and is right on the Rimma Trade Route. Could be useful.” The male Mon Calamari just blinked and nodded and walked away.  
Her eyes went back to the screen at Dagobah, “Why did I think about Dagobah?” Leia let a groan escape and leaned back in her chair. She almost fell back asleep when she felt a hand on her shoulder, jumping nearly a klick in her seat she heard laughter. She turned around, “Mothma!” She stood up to greet her, and she was wearing her usual politician smile. “I’m sorry for your loss Senator Organa. Luke was...important to us all and we all mourn his loss.”  
Leia nodded, “Yes, we seem to be mourning more than we’re cheering. The Empire’s grip on us seems to be tightening around our necks.”  
Mon Mothma bowed slightly, “We’re here to see that it doesn’t. If you excuse me I do have to speak with the Admiral.”  
“Of course.”

Leia stretched her arms, she tapped the shoulder of a guardsman she didn’t recognize. “Sorry, do you know where they are keeping the...the erm...keeping Luke Skywalker and Sila Kott?” The guard coughed slightly, “Aah, cargo bay Sub Section 2. Yeah pretty sure.” “Thank you.”  
Leia walked into the elevator to the cargo bay, when the doors opened she saw the two black capsules on the far side of the room. She walked across the floor, her boots clacking on the polished ground, echoing behind her. It had been processed like any other piece of cargo, it read “Luke Skywalker, Deceased. A564-67-BT” Many other bodies of the men and women of the Alliance would never have their bodies recovered, but here now Leia didn’t care about that. She put her hand on the capsule, Leia.... Again the voice called out for her. “Luke? Luke is that you?”  
“Leia?” This voice wasn’t from Leia’s mind but coming from General Rieekan who was also down in the cargo bay.  
“I thought I was going crazy down here Rieekan.”  
“I know what you mean.” Rieekan pulled out a small box, “When the boys brought back Skywalker and Kott they also found this, Skywalker had it in his hands. I think it’s only proper that you have it now.”  
Leia accepted the small silver box, and opened it, “it’s his lightsaber. Oh I can’t take this.”  
“I insist, Luke would have wanted you to have it.”  
Leia agreed, he probably would have insisted on it. “Rieekan...I know we’re all being tasked to find a new hide out for the Alliance. But...”  
“There’s always a but.”  
Leia shuffled her feet slightly, “yes, but I wanted to send Luke off. He was a good friend of mine, and to the alliance and I have the perfect place I want to send him.”  
Rieekan’s eyes widened with curiosity, “Oh?”  
Leia swallowed, “Dagobah system. I know Luke would have wanted to go there.”  
Rieekan look visibly confused, “Dagobah? But there’s nothing there.”  
“Call it a hunch General, I just know.”  
Rieekan shrugged, “I won’t argue, okay, do what you feel is right.”  
Leia smiled, “Sounds like something old Obi-Wan Kenobi would say.”

Rieekan left the cargo bay, and once again Leia was left alone with the dead and silence. She dropped the box, and picked up the lightsaber. It was a finely crafted saber with a ridged hilt grip, Leia was surprised that it was so heavy, “didn’t look this heavy from the holo-vids.” Leia said to herself. She looked around to make sure no one else was around, and she activated the weapon. A beam of blue light emitted from the weapon, “Oh wow” she exclaimed to herself. She could feel the immense power coming from the hilt, and it hummed with energy. Leia began to feel something else, an elegant weapon, for a more civilized age. It certainly wasn’t a more civilized age anymore. She felt an intense attachment to the weapon, and felt that it was an extension of her own life, no matter how odd she told herself that was. She convinced herself that it was simply due to her grief over losing her friend. 

Leia had packed as light as she could as she didn’t know how long she was going to be. The official story of course was that she had set out on her own to find a new base for the Alliance, which wasn’t too far from the truth. Dressed in a green jumpsuit, and a new flyer Leia head out towards Dagobah with Luke, not knowing what to expect out there. Maybe nothing, but Leia had a feeling Dagobah wasn’t going to be boring.


	4. Chapter 4

Leia had just passed Eriadu, Tarkin’s homeworld on her way to Dagobah, she made a spitting gesture. She looked around to share the comedy, then quickly frowned when she realized that she was in fact alone. She wondered what Han was doing right now, she wanted to hate him, and sometimes she did. He was a scoundrel, and a smuggler, and Leia often argued with herself which one was worse. But, she couldn’t blame him, being in trouble with the Hutts was no place to be in. She had no way of contacting him of course, not without alerting the Empire over the Holo-Net. 

She switched out of the hyper-drive, and came upon the planet of Dagobah. As she got closer she realized that the landing was going to be a problem. The canopy of the planet was so thick, and dense that she was more likely to sink the ship than crash. “What would you do Luke?” “Hmm?” Looking around to make sure no one else saw the Alderaanian princess believe in magic, she let herself be guided where to go. “Let’s see if more of this mystical mumbo jumbo works again.” Leia felt drawn to a certain quadrant of the planet for some reason, and slowly set down her flyer. She got caught in several branches and vines, and the ship wouldn’t move any further. “Well, so much for that I’m not going anywhere for a while.” Leia noticed she was talking to herself, rolling her eyes she grabbed a flamethrower and opened the hatch to the outside. She was quickly greeted by the humid oppressive atmosphere of Dagobah. She surveyed the damage, she had actually made it very nearly to the ground below, she figured that if she could fire the right number of foliage the ship could break through. She climbed up on the roof and began her work, the giant “WOOOSH” noise muffled out any of the animal noises around her. She didn’t hear the ripping sound as too many vines let loose and the ship fell to the ground. Screaming, Leia went down with the ship, falling over head first into the moist ground, and cutting her head on some stray stones. Spitting out some of the metallic tasting dirt from her mouth, Leia cradled her head. “Well at least the ship is free.” Groaning further, Leia crawled to the hatch and into the ship’s fresher. Cupping some water to her mouth to wash her mouth out and clean her cut. She heard a rattling sound, opening the door from the fresher she saw a strange green creature going through her stuff. “Excuse me?”she asked the creature  
“Excuse me? Excuse you!” he exclaimed back

“That’s my stuff, get out! Get out!”  
The green creature shot Leia an indignant look, and turned around to look up at her face, “On my home you are, crashed you have. Hmmph! Excuse you!”  
“Fair enough. Are you hungry little guy?”  
The green creature scrunched up his face, “Yes! Yes we should eat.”  
Leia moved to one of the buckled cabinets to grab a ration bar, “Should be one of them somewhere. Ration bars aren’t the best tasting meal I’ve ever had but they, uh...do the job.”  
She found a box containing the food and turned back, the creature had removed the tarp covering...no not even in silence or in thought Leia couldn’t bring herself to think he was dead. Angrily Leia grabbed the tarp back from the creature and covered the capsule. “Stay away from that! What are you even doing here!”

The creature instead, lifted the tarp and put his hand on the capsule and closed his eyes. His withered fingers smoothed over a small nondescript plate that read, “Skywalker, Luke.”   
The creature turned his body towards Leia, and leaned back onto his walking stick and tapped his cane on the floor of the ship, “Come to bring your friend here, you have?” Leia nodded, “Did you...know Luke?” With a small sigh the creature shook his head, “No, met we never have. Know of Skywalker’s son I have.” Leia raised an eyebrow, “You knew his family? From Tatooine?”  
“From Tatooine, Luke is not.” Leia went to interrupt the creature again, “Waste not, come we must put friends to rest.” The creature began walking down the ramp to the ground of Dagobah, he turned around and stopped, “Rude I have been, I am Yoda.” Leia bent down to grasp the creature named Yoda’s hand and managed a slight smile, “Leia”. Yoda looked off into the background, and pursed his lips together, “Hmm, Leia. Yes, you are Leia” 

Yoda brought Leia to a small hut, she could spy a small hearth and a slightly putrid smell from the swamp nearby. “I don’t know why I brought Luke here, he never spoke of it.”  
Yoda moved towards a log to sit, visibly tired from the walk, “Never spoke of it, no. Felt it you did.”  
“I think so, it felt like, almost like...”  
“Spoke to you?”  
“Yes, exactly. I’ve never really felt anything like it,” Leia was about to finish her sentence with before, but it wasn’t completely true, “Well, I have felt things before...images, feelings”  
Leia sat next to Yoda, she remembered her feelings on her last visit to Naboo while searching for the last children of Alderaan.  
“Remember your mother, have you?” Yoda asked  
“She died when I was very young, I never knew her.”  
Yoda nodded, “Yes,” Leia felt as if there was something else he wished to add, but didn’t wish to press on.

Yoda pointed to Leia’s belt, “Decided to keep that, have you?”  
Leia’s hand moved to touch Luke’s lightsaber, “Yes, I don’t know. I feel, no I mean I think Luke would want me to have it.”  
“It was his father’s lightsaber, Anakin Skywalker.”  
Leia’s eyes widened, “His father was a Jedi? I only ever heard stories from Father,” Leia’s eyes teared up at the thought of her father telling her fantastical tales of the Clone Wars at bedtime, “he used to tell me about Jedi, and clones, and about all these planets out in the outer rim...he-”  
Yoda made a ‘humph’ noise, “Millions silenced under the Empire”  
Leia cleared her throat, and wiped her eye, “But Yoda, I thought Jedi were forbidden from getting married or having children?”  
Yoda chuckled slightly, “When have rules stopped people from doing what is forbidden, forbidden you were to join the Rebellion were you not?”  
“Well that’s true, but now Luke is dead and so too the Rebellion’s last hope. He was the last Jedi, we can’t hope to replace him.”  
“Not without hope you are” Yoda moved off the log, and placed his hand on the capsule, “Come, come eat inside.”


	5. Chapter 5

Leia ducked her head entering the small hut, and a putrid stench entered her nostrils and she peered into a small cauldron and hoped it wasn’t coming from the hearth, but she suspected it was. She made a small face, and figured it wasn’t as bad as when her father attempted to cook the national dish of Ando for a political function. 

 

Yoda hobbled over to the fire, to throw a few apparently missing ingredients into the pot, Leia doubted it would do anything to help the smell, let alone the flavour. She put on a good face, one she often used when she was in the Empire senate, and dealing with evil incarnate. She hadn’t had any time to grieve her family, Luke, anyone. It seemed to Leia that everyone in the galaxy needed her to put on a strong face and go on, the princess with no home, and no fear. But she was afraid, sometimes.

 

“Worried are you?” Yoda asked, Leia nodded, the flickering flames of the hearth glinting off a few tears dropped off her face. “I don’t even know why I’m here, how how I showed up here. I just knew I had to, and now that I’m here...I don’t know what I’m supposed to do.”

Yoda leaned on his tiny cane, and rubbed his lips together, his ears drooping slightly. “Have feelings before they happen, dreams that come true do you?”

 

Leia’s brow creased, she thought of when she was on Naboo, the feeling she got of being followed, like a whisper from long ago. Then she thought about the feelings of being guided on Hoth. “I’m not sure...”

 

Yoda nodded, and took a seat on his floor with a small pillow. “The son of Anakin Skywalker was our only hope, to destroy the Empire and bring balance to the force.”

Leia sighed, she agreed, “he was the Rebellion’s only hope as well.”

Yoda looked up at the ceiling, like he was looking for someone, “There is another,”

“Another?” Leia asked

 

A voice filled the room, Leia looked around the tiny hovel for where it was coming from, but it was empty. “Both I, and your father were with your mother when you were born.”

“My mother? What does my mother have to do with this?”

Yoda turned his head towards Leia’s, leaning in slightly with an unreadable expression, “Your real mother.”

 

The hovel was too small to stand up, Leia sat there, and crossed her arms, ‘What do you mean my real mother? Who was my real mother?”

 

The voice returned, “Twenty-two standard rotations ago, your mother gave birth to you on a medical facility on Polis Massa, before passing.”

“She gave birth to twins,”

 

Leia’s eyes widened, “Twins?”

 

“Both I, and your father decided it was best to separate the two. Your father took a daughter, I took the son and hid him with his family on Tatooine.”

 

Suddenly Leia could feel everything in the room, the heat from the hearth, her heartbeat racing in her chest, the sounds of the swamp outside, it seemed as if the room was inhaling and exhaling, her temples throbbed, the cut on her forehead from earlier stung, her legs were losing circulation from sitting cross legged. 

 

“Luke...Luke is, was my brother?” Leia bit her lip to keep from crying, there was nothing left to distract her from the fact that her home was gone, her family, and now learning her friend, Luke was her twin brother, and he too was gone. It was too much, her breaths became rapid, and wracked. Every breath she attempted to gain control, but no amount of control she exerted could control it. Everything she had known was a lie, she knew the truth now, but still she had to ask, “So my father, my real father was...Anakin Skywalker? The Jedi?”

 

The voice filled the room again, “Yes, he was killed on Mustafar, killed by Darth Vader. My former apprentice, and he turned to the dark side and killed your father, your real father.”

“Obi-Wan Kenobi! It is you.”

 

Finally a vision entered the room, surrounded by a supernatural blue light, Leia could hardly recognize the face she had seen from the old Republic posters, but it was him. “You’re so old now,”

The vision smiled, as older men often did with a slight twinkle of youth in the eye, “Yes, the years have caught up to me.”   
“H-how are you here, with me, here?”

 

The vision took a seat next to Leia, and she was surprised to feel that the vision had weight, but no heat, no energy emanating from the light. “My former master, Qui-Gon Jinn taught himself the ways of the cosmic force, and the secret to immortality. Both myself and Yoda have taken it to learning the ways of the force, so we could be here to guide you.”

 

“Was it Luke who spoke to me on Hoth?”

The vision of Obi-Wan looked down, and he stroked his beard, “I do not know, but you both are so strong with the force, that anything is possible.”

 

Leia looked down at her hands,  _ I have it too? _ She thought, how incredulous,  _ me a Jedi? _ Leia laughed under her breath, “I’m a Jedi? Me?”

“In time, you could be. With training.”

Leia thought to herself as a child, bored with politics, and diplomacy, languages, academics, wishing to be a part of the action. Every tale Bale told of Jedi, and bounty hunters from the days of the Republic seemed to be more exciting than the last, she longed to be a part of those stories, but now, she was afraid again.

 

“You’re going to ask me to kill Darth Vader.” She said in a flat voice, Yoda nodded. “He is an apprentice to a dark lord, “Emperor Palpatine, I know him well.”

Leia did know him well, as well as every senator or representative of the Empire knew him. He rarely showed his face, but we all knew it was horribly disfigured, a result of being attacked by the Jedi he said. His presence in the senate before he abolished it was also becoming more sporadic, the empty hover limousines, some said he was dead. Leia knew better than to believe that, she always knew he was evil. 

 

Leia thought about the destruction of Alderaan, the invasion of several worlds by the Empire, Luke, she thought of it all, and felt inside a heat in her heart, a wish to eradicate the Empire, destroy Darth Vader. She would take him apart piece by piece, she promised herself. He killed everything she ever cared about, including her father she never got to know. “What do you want me to do?”

 

Yoda stood up, “Nothing, other things to do, there are.”

Leia looked through the tiny window, at the capsule, “Luke...”

“He was a Jedi, he should be given a funeral like one.”

 

Leia collected the driest wood she could find for a funeral pyre, and assembled a bed. Yoda through the force moved Luke’s lifeless body onto the bed of wood, and Leia and Yoda anointed his body with oil. She caressed his cheek, the reddish blush on his cheeks was replaced with a lifeless bluish colour. “I’ll destroy Darth Vader for you, I promise.”

 

Yoda motioned to the torch near the hut, and Leia grabbed it and began lighting the pyre. Standing a few feet away, watching the fire burn everything that Luke was, or could be in silence. 

“Train you, I will. Tomorrow, rest I need. Rest.” Leia hardly knew this Yoda, but she could feel the sadness in his voice, it was palpable. She imagined his life had not been easy, no one’s life was easy now.

 

Leia stood in front of the pyre, and did not move until the fire subsided. Her fist balled up at her side,  _ The Empire will regret crossing me _ . 


End file.
